discovering a hobby

If you have been following my blog, then you will be aware that … of late I have become terribly bored … if not anything else. Blogging, blogging, and blogging … music, music and music, IPL, IPL, and now, no more IPL, driving, driving, and driving … well the ususal stuff.

Yesterday, while rummaging through the old model toy cars I had, Hot Wheels, Maisto, and the sort … I had this bright idea of photographing them up close .. to make them look like real full size vehicles. What I ended up with, was a huge collection of 125 amazing pics. Here are 6 of the coolest looking. Do click on them to experience them to the fullest. And let me know, how you like them!!! 

this one is an 18 wheeler, and an automobile carrier. The bent front portion adds a nice touch. Photographing this was difficult because it required the right combination of close-up and distant focusing. As a result, the front part got slightly blurred.

this is the super-star in my collection. The limited edition 1:18 model Michael Schumacher Ferrari, it catches the winning moment of this legend immediately after the Canadian GP 2003. Every nook and corner is authenticate to the minutest detail.

the historic super-car of the 80s. The Lamborghini Countach. Lamborghini’s first “super” car

the chic and cool Smart Citycar. Please DON’T confuse with the Nano.

the hybrid Toyota Prius minivan.

I personally don’t like bikes much. But loads of people do. This Yamaha R1 is just for them.

Do comment!!!! I’m trying to embed a presentation in my blog to give you glimpses of all the pics I shot …

100 hits in 10 days!!!

Just when it looked that I was running out of topics to blog about, I got this pleasant surprise this morning when I noticed that the number of visitors to this blog had crossed the 100 mark, and that too within 10 days of installing cluster maps!!! So that makes it an average of 10 hits a day.  Small things in life, give me an immense amount of pleasure you know, and this is just one of these. Yippeee!!!

Thank you Mr/Mrs/Ms USA, Costa Rica, Oman, Bangladesh, Slovakia, Germany, Austria, UAE, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa, Netherlands, Austria, Australia, and all you lovely folks in India, for spending your time visiting my blog.

 

Test or Jest?

In ways, more than one, I represent a typical Indian student. Like a good boy, I studied for my boards, passed them, appeared in competitive examinations, and have scraped through a few of them … but  NEVER EVER have I taken an examination like the one I took yesterday. I earnestly hope that such exams do not EVER fall in my way anymore … and if they do … may God bless them.

What I’m referring to is the great Indian Driving Test. Since 18 is the legal age in India to opt for a driving licence, I was well within legal constraints when I applied for a course in motor training at a  school in Calcutta. This school goes by the name of Bhagwandas, and has been in this business since 1914. So, in accordance with the schedule, that of thrice a week, this old guy came up to my house in a rattly Maruti 800, and tried to instill in me the basic concepts of car driving. This was to go on for 15 days but after about 10 days I realised, that what I had learnt in these 10 days was nothing but operating a four wheeler … leave alone driving one. And if you are an Indian, you will know that the heavenly condition of Indian roads ensure that operating a  four-wheeler is indeed very different from driving one.

I then realised, that I had to get things going then, and there. So I made it a point to go out every morning with my father, and then my chauffeur, to actually get a feel of the reality. These were the sessions, which actually helped me, and I gained the required amount of confidence to master the Indian roads. Later, when my sessions shifted to the afternoon, and I came face to face with traffic-packed roads, with buses and taxis breathing burnt diesel down my neck, it proved to a be an even better training ground, and my ability to maneuver around these obstacles quite naturally elated me.

Now India is famous for doing everything … that is it … whether she does it well or poorly is not her concern at all. But important thing is : she does everything. Common sense tells you that motor-training falls under everything, and logic tells you, that if India does everything, then she must be doing this too. And indeed. 

After the 15 days of intensive training (lol!), natural progression demanded I take the driving test. It was on a Saturday that I submitted my learner’s licence, and was asked to come to the school (?) on the next Wednesday (the 27th of May) for the test.

I was not scared of this test, since I knew that I would pass this one pretty easily, but I was, to say the least, apprehensive. So when the aforementioned day dawned, I reached the school in my own car, with my chauffeur sitting beside me, and … waited. (India is famous for making people wait too!!! Here we have queues everywhere … from maternity wards to cremation grounds!!!) And while waiting, the sights, and the sounds made me … sick.

This was how, the future motorists of India were being tested? Was this a god forsaken joke? You wouldn’t believe it … that people who had not brought their own cars (the majority), were all piled into one of those training cars, and this load of examinees were ferried around Maddox Square park, making just one lap around it … and the funniest thing was … each of the   “examinees”, got to drive only a couple of meters!!! After this, the whole bunch, belonging to various training schools, were herded like cattle into the red Motor Vehicles building, where they shot a snap of your face, took your finger print, and then, like crows, shoo – ed you away. Made my head reel, my blood boil.

Since I had taken my own car, an even crappier thing happened. My own chauffeur got the responsibility of testing me!!! So, in the far reaches of the park, where no authorised eyes could see, I may well have asked my very obedient chauffeur, to drive !!! No one bothered to check who was driving, no one bothered to know whether I knew which was the clutch, the brake, and the accelerator…

After the test was over, I was taken to an officer for an “oral” exam, where all he asked me was what a red cross on a car meant!!! After that, my photo was taken, and my finger print was recorded, and I made my way back home … 

Am expecting my licence after 20 odd days. So many people are, some of them who have perhaps driven not more than 10 meters in their lives, who will perhaps become the cabbies of the future, and ferry so many passengers from place to place…

Why are accidents in India common? I think we have another option to vote for now!!!

Cyclone Aila and UFOs

Finally, when it seemed that Calcutta existed only to make her citizens sweat, boil, and swelter, in came the rains, with all their rage, fury and dramatic recklessness to wreak havoc on the heat wave. And how!

25th May 2009 will be a day to be remembered for years to come. Not just because the JEE 2009 results were declared on that day, which saw me through with not so flying colours, but also because of a mass reversal of prayers from the troubled citizens of the City Of Joy. If people were praying to the Gods for rain, the Gods did indeed ensure that each and everybody got more than what he/she had bargained for!!! 

Enter Cyclone Aila, one of the coolest things to have possibly happened in Bengal … literally, and essentially. She cooled everything … starting from heightened tempers to the sultry heat and also super cooled the things which were actually cooling … election fever, and the IPL craze. Cooled everything so much that she rendered everything passive, and motionless … stagnant and crestfallen. Close to a couple of hundred old, well set trees were uprooted, and water logging (believed to have been an extinct phenomenon), ensured that everybody paid for their prayers.

What’s more, Ms Aila also ensured that cable TV, braodband lines, and power transmission wires remained unoperational for a couple of days too. Citizens of Calcutta, had no option  but to   remain indoors, with all ties with the outside world severed … in a rather nasty manner.

ONE interesting thing happened amidst all this drama. A couple of these gigantic UFOs flew in from no where into our house, making us all the more bewildered and confused. I do not actually know what they are, but they sure can be kept as show pieces in the drawing room. Here are the actual photos. You can see from their size (compare with the matchbox) that they are pretty big and … weird. Click on it to get a feel of their size. Should be dried portions of some tree …

The Long … and The Short of it

One thing I’ve realised after two years of gruelling hard work is that … there is an end to everything. Even something as Gargantuan and stupendous, seemingly never ending and incessant … as the IITJEE preparation, something as colossal as this great saga … is ordained by destiny to bow down to the ravishing passage of time, and accept defeat. 

Strange as it may seem, even a year back such dreams were hard to actually direct thought upon … but today well, it indeed is a dream come true. It’s been tough, and there can be absolutely no doubt about that … but then again it IS the tough who get going, when the going gets tough, isn’t it? 

In a way I’ve lost … lost more than a happy life for the past two years, and possibly, it is only one person who has emerged victorious in this rat-race. After all, the person who comes second is no more than the best loser isn’t he? But funny thing is the person who wins this rat-race is … no offence meant … indeed the quickest rat in the business! So the worse you perform, the less rat-like one becomes … sweet and simple logic? For sure!!! 

The best thing about a phone number like rank which I obtained in JEE 2009, is that it will be quite possible to actually get the much coveted IIT tattoo, and at the same time pursue studies in Physics or Mathematics … which is incidentally a hell lot better from the education point of view, than the pseudo-science called engineering. Now let me reveal the “true” me to you, the patient reader of all this “content free bullshit” (or CFB, as my father calls it). I am a rather funny sort of a guy from this perspective, who is rather wayward in his views about career buliding. I am NOT a career minded guy. I swear. I really want to make it real REAL B!G in life but not in the stereotyped manner of pursuing this, that and what not. I am more of a study oriented freaky sort, who actually enjoys learning, reading, and applying knowledge in the best-est manner, letting my ambitions seek me more than me seeking them.

Thinking that I have all the makings of a geeky nerd, are you? Think on dude!!!

Ever since I was young, tiny weeny and the cute cuddly sort, much like them Vodafone Zoozoos, (I actually was, even my friends tell me now!!!) I have adored the process of education, and NOTHING fascinated me more than … absorbing stuff, like a sponge and getting to know to know the hidden secrets of this universe, more and more, and deep within me was my indelible yearning to study one or the other of the aforementioned subjects. So deep rooted was this desire that I got the shock of my life when my parents decided to put me in a place where they actually train you to get into a place where they teach you applied science in the form of engineering. I got even more cheesed off when the teachers in this place actually mapped senseless examples from science … hardcore concepts … into situations where you are working in a firm, and where your aim was a salary of 2-3 lakhs of rupees. Mockery man!!! Its absolute mockery. And a death-blow to the very roots of the great process called science!!!

The other day one of my very good friends was asking me why I have never bothered to join a social networking community … which is so much the craze today. Fact is, that even I’m very much aware of all this, even my family memebers are into this thing … my mum’s on Orkut, and possibly just hours away from opening a Facebook account, and my brilliant father has his presence in Orkut, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and also has his own tailor made community on Ning, for promotion of his programming marvels. While my fun-loving mum uses Orkut in much the same fashion as you people do, my father’s reason for social networking is a platform for development of newer stuff. Let me tell you, that quite a number of applications you people use on Orkut or Facebook, were actually uploaded by my father himself! That is exactly what my aims are and this IS the long and the short of it. I haven’t joined these because I’m simply NOT in a postion to enhance these platforms right now. Eventually my mum’s persuation may compel me to create a profile … it won’t be at all owing to my own wishes. AT ALL. 

So what do I do on the net? I continue the same great process of learning there too. I have accounts, perhaps not in social-networking platforms, but on really cool sites which help me implement my dreams. The foremost is blogger, which is perhaps the best way of maintaining your touch with the English language (whcich I adore so very much). Another common place one is YouTube. Yet another less common ones is this amazing place called ‘StumbleUpon!’. This is, according to me, a pioneer in online entertainment. All you need to do is select from a wide range of subjects that interest you, and just click on the ‘Stumble!’ button. And this site takes you to a place where you are sure to find stuff that will interest you. You don’t like that page? Just click on the appropriate thumbs-down sign, and the server makes sure that you won’t see such stuff anymore. You like the page? Just click on the thumbs up sign, and it will take you to such and such sites in the future. This is one heck of a way of learning newer and newer stuff, and can provide hours of interest to any damn body in the world. Other places where I have profiles are Digg, del-icio-us, flashWidgetz, flamingText, WordPress, and loads of other really cool places … all of which are owing to my insatiable yearning for fulfilling my dreams.

But Relax…. I’m not as scary as I may sound!!! I love the softer parts of life too !!! Cricket, Formula 1, rock music, cars… these are all my forte … but perhaps sidelined by my lofty dreams … which BELIEVE ME, I’ve just gotta make materialise.

the not so reviewed aspect of IPL

Since today is the last day of the IPL 2009, I thought to myself, why not make this post IPL centric too? Now is IPL synonymous with T20 cricket solely? Not quite. It is indeed more than just hard hitting cover drives, super quick staright drives, and those meaty pull shots. It is in fact, as they called it last year, ‘manaranjan ka baap’, fraught with Bollywood masala, glam cheerleaders, and breath taking revelations (remember the FIP’s blog?).

Here’s one side of the DLF IPL that didn’t quite go unnoticed but nevertheless, did not invoke critical review from the experts. What I’m referring to are the team anthems and their videos. That is that which shall make the contents for this post. How about a gradual countdown ie the worst to the best? game? here we go…

• 8 – I watched all the eight team promos, and the worst had to be that of the Royal Challengers Bangalore. It starts off with a pretty nice intro, but the song beginning bears an uncanny resemblance to the Johnny Gaddar title track. Another downside is that it first shows the jersey of Zaheer Khan, who though a part of the playing XI last year, is now with the Mumbai Indians this year, something they should have changed for this season. The video stars big boss Mallya himself, and Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif (not the best combo perhaps). The song turns out to be terribly boring too, and so does the video. This just can’t be the video or the song to actually boost the morale of a team that finished in position 7 last season! However they have done quite well this year, having reached the finals, but that, I guess should be attributed to other factors. Rating 2/10

• Coming in at a really close 7 to keep RCB company is a joint Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Daredevils. While the MI video starts in a rather stereotype manner, the song turns out to be terrifyingly sleepy and lacks every iota of josh. Slightly better than the RCB are the cinematics. It’s a tad too long too. On the other hand the DD promo starts with terribly outdated lines “Delhi Daredevils, We never give up”, and all the video shows are faces of Glenn McGrath, and Daniel Vettori turning to face the camera at least ten times. The song that  starts from then on is pretty nice, and brings the DD in line with the MI with a rather meagre 3/10.

• 5 is when the stuff get really nice. OK if not really, then quite nice. So here I decided to put in the Chennai Superkings. Their song is very well made. The lyrics are not out of the ordinary but the rap concept is pretty nicely implemented. “We are the Chen-nai Chen-nai-Super-kings” invokes quite an amount of laughter. Seeing MS Dhoni rap is a rather rewarding experience indeed. What also catches the eye is the cool transformation of Dhoni’s face into a lion’s at the end. Rating 6/10.

• 4 and things are getting really heated up!!! In comes the Deccan Chargers. Their video is rather boring, but what actually enervates you is the extremely charging up song. “Go Chargers, Go Chargers, Go Chargers Go!!!” not only enthuses the players on the field but also intimidates the opposition to a large extent. The song is pretty loud, and the tune really nice. Good for a 7/10.

• 3 and it’s the Rajasthan Royals. The cinematics in this one are pretty cool, but the best part’s got to be the “Halla Bol” song. It’s the best team anthem hands down. A little more work on the video could have earned them position 1 indeed. The song enervates, enthuses, and is a hell lot of a fun. The video isn’t that bad in fact. It stars Shilpa Shetty, and shows a really nice item number.Plus these chaps can boast showing them winning the cup last year … a scene none of the others can show Rating 7.5/10.

• Now it’s getting rather hot isn’t it? 2 … who could it be? Only two teams are left …. and it’s Preity Zinta vs the king Khan. So this goes to … the Kings XI Punjab. The video is really, reeeaallly nice, and shows the least amount of cricket as compared to all the others. What it shows are glimpses from Punjab, and how they show it makes all the difference, putting them up in no 2. The Punjabi kid plays an adorable role, and the one glimpse of Yuvraj Singh, hitting one out of the ground, follwed by Priety Zinta’s leap into the air is shown very well. Also the Bhangra number is amazing and gives a suitable backdrop to this great promo. Rating 7.8/10.

• It had to be it, hands down. Not because I’m from Kolkata, not because I’m an avid SRK fan, but the fact remains that the Kolkata Knight Riders promo is one heck of a promo. It’s simply phenomenal … period. It does everything terribly well. The African back drop is just scintillating, and King Khan’s acting … well he is the best in the business! The song has been modified a bit, specially the intro, but it’s all clear that no other team can come even a mile close to this. I wish I could give more but … 10/10.

visit the DLF IPL website to view these videos. Click here.

bother everything!!!

what could be worse ? my iPod charger’s lost, and I can’s charge my iPod, and now my cell phone’s cracked up!!! no response at all … and then it ran out of charge and couldn’t be put to charge even!!! DAMN!!!

now what’s more ironic?

WOW … you’re gonna love this one. I am a pretty hardcore IPL fan, and was also a hardcore KKR  fan when season 1 kicked off. I felt really elevated after seeing Brendon McCullum’s 158* knock on the first match last year, but then all hopes got extinguished following a string of defeats to nearly all the other teams. Click here to read my post regarding this thought last year. 

This year, my expectations were rather lower than last year, but the KKR Reloaded ads sure worked me up, and I started harbouring some real lofty hopes again. But surprises and surprises!!! KKR responded with an even poorer performance, and slipped from a lousy table postion of 6 to an even lousier 8. Not the best reloading act perhaps, eh?

But this isn’t what my post is about. 

A few minutes back, I decided to visit the official KKR website to see what the  guys out there’s got to say. That was when I got the idea for this post. Their really cool looking website opens up with a picture of SRK holding the even cooler flaming KKR helmet, and when you click on the ‘View Intro’ button you get to see some pretty amazing videos with the KKR anthem sounding loud (provided you have your speakers on). Then there’s this bold question 

‘will KKR kick a$# this season?’

They give you two options ‘Oh Yeah!’ and ‘Nope’. A month back I would have opted for ‘Oh yeah!, but now the scenario demands the other option. So I clicked on ‘Nope’, possibly renting SRK’s heart rather nastily. The most ironic thing is what happens then on. There’s a picture of a ball shattering glass, and the ‘Crunch’ sound of the same, and then in big letters

‘Wrong Answer !

Try Again’

They won’t actually let you visit their site home page UNLESS you click on ‘Oh Yeah’!

LOL!!!!

That’s a fine show of misplaced optimism indeed!!!

click here to visit the kkr website.

an enjoyable book

Among the various things I enjoy, one of the foremost of them is reading books … or better, it was reading books. Until recently this habit had almost become extinct owing to a lethal combination of superhuman study pressure, and lack of time, so the day my ISC exams got over I made a dash from my school for the Elgin Road Crossword store, and to my delight found a couple of books that seemed … just right for me. One was Vikas Swarup’s ‘Q & A’, the novel on which the Oscar winning ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is based, and the other was ‘Surely you’re joking Mr. Feynman!’ a collection of stories taken from the life of one of the greatest theoretical physicists, Richard P Feynman of the 20th century. Now, whatever my ISC marks may say, I’m honestly good at physics, and I love that subject owing to its complicated simplicity (After all, which other subject can explain why other subjects exist?), and hence am rather inclined towards books that deal in the same.

And if you are still wondering which of the two books this post points at, its the latter.

Now ‘Surely you’re joking Mr. Feynman’ is not a book on science. What I mean is, its not full of pages fraught with high sounding scientific jargon, and particle accelerators, or anti-matter, or string theory or … the stuff you find in Stephen Hawkin’s books, nor is it made intimidating by the inclusion of weird symbols, or incomprehensible equations like Roger Penrose’s stuff. Rather this is a book on the action-packed life of one of the most interesting persons of the previous century, how he grew up tinkering with radios … “fixing radios by thinking” , getting into all sorts of mischief in college, removing doors from dormitories, graduation form MIT, and then Princeton. If you are wondering that this is just boring autobiographical stuff, then let me tell you, that you are eating the rotten end of the papaya (HEY, that’s an idiom I created right now!!!).

The book makes for a thoroughly enjoyable read, but yup, there’s no simple way to prove it. All you have is my word, that money spent in this book won’t be mis-spent. It had me in stitches in every chapter, and I’m sure that you, whether you like science or not, will find this to be one of the most hilarious reads ever. It gives, not only an alternative insight into one of the greatest minds of the last century, but also shows how this great man, had his quota of fun, be it in the form of bashing up goons in a toilet in a bar, or being drunk to the last cell of his body and trying to impress the damsels around him. 

to wrap it up, one heck of a read.

a decade long friendship

As many of you would be aware, I have a certain affinity for automobiles (that is it, I don’t like bikes), which has it’s roots deep somewhere within my system. Even if you left me on a desolate island, without food, water, or an iota of civilisation, 100 miles all around, I wouldn’t be bothered at all if I had a beautiful, and a well made automobile somewhere nearby.

If’ that’s stretching things too far, then make it 10 miles :). 

Now, we own a couple of motoring-marvels, that has ever hit the Indian roads. Relax, I’m not talking about the Rolls Royce Phantom, or the Lamborghini Gallardo. What I’m referring to are cars that come from Asia itself … the Far East, to be precise … and they happen to be masterpieces in their own categories. One is the Qualis, manufactured by the largest automaker in the planet today, Toyota, and the other happens to be a Santro, made by the not so internationally popular Hyundai. While the Qualis has been taken off the assembly line by Toyota to make way for the (superior?) Innova, the Santro continues to be sold by Hyundai at a rate, rather alarming for the competition. 

This post is dedicated to the latter.

We bought the Santro, in the year 1999, as a replacement for our 1963 HM Amby. For ancestral reasons, we managed to get a registration number of 6000, to replace the Amby’s 600 and it was some hot summer day in May, that I saw the Santro, glistening in the noon sun light, its metallic silver body scattering the light all around and illuminating the entire neighbourhood. That is when I actually fell in love with it. Well, the Santro was not actually designed to win beauty contests, but there was something about the car that …. just … sort of …. captivated me. 

From that began the silver WB 02 J 6000 Santro’s journey with us. 

Today, our Santro turned a decade old. A lot about the car has indeed changed … let’s be honest … its clearly not what it used to be. But within these 10 years a hell lot has happened which has made me, and my family, bow our heads down to the Santro, and say “All Hail”.

Here’s the first jhatka. Our Santro … believe it or not … has clocked a staggering 160,000 kilometres in the odometer, that is a whopping 60,000 kilometres more than the guarantee period Hyundai had claimed. At this mileage, I would wager, no car in this country, would be able to serve its owner as well as this gentleman serves us today.

Here’s the next, when in 2001, half of the City of Joy remained flooded owing to the incessant monsoons, and our Santro remained standing in the garage, with the water level up to the AC vents, we are sort of sure that he would not make it through, this time, and would require a complete overhaul. But surprises, and surprises!!! When the Hyundai service team came up … no sooner had they drained all the water out from the car, this little master happily purred to life at a mere turn of the ignition key, and could make the full journey from our home to the Hyundai service station at Kestopur (nearly 18 kilometres) without the tiniest bother. Now the Santro came with a rather small engine, a 999 cc powerplant that developed a meagre 55 horsepower. Compare that with other Indian cars, and well, it seems pretty ordinary … but 10 years of using this master piece has ensured that small can indeed be special … very very special indeed.

This little master saw me through ten whole years of my school life … right from class 3 till class 12, and shared all the ups and downs of my life as well. Now, slogging into its tenth anniversary he’s not got much life left in him however. I dunno how I’ll manage to live without him, for he’s indeed become a very, very important part of my life. The facts are however pretty clear, he’s go to go, beccause its not happening anymore … period. Writing this itself brings a lump in my throat, a lump that speaks volumes of the tender relationship I have shared with him. The engine’s become unresponsive, and the clutch simply won’t take any more beating on the Indian roads. Even yesterday, when we took him out, scarcely had he we travelled 10 kilometres when with an absolute grating noise it screeched to a halt. Investigation revealed that the silencer system had got completely detached and was grazing along the road. 

But good thing is, I have achieved my dreams. Ever since I had seen this car, I knew that this was the car I had to learn driving on. Now that I’m through with my driving training, I’m going out every day in this little master on long drives all around the city … from Salt Lake to Behala, from Dum Dum to Alipore … and so on.

But deep within me, I know for certain that the day we bid adieu to him, that day will possibly be the worst day of my life, that’s one reality I probably won’t be able to face.